Save Article

Monsanto to Pay $2.5 Million for Distributing Modified Seed in Restricted Area

By

Scott Kilman

Updated July 8, 2010 5:52 p.m. ET

Monsanto Co. will pay a $2.5 million civil fine for failing to tell farmers about the Environmental Protection Agency's planting restrictions on its genetically-modified cotton.

The St. Louis crop biotechnology giant ran afoul of the EPA, which regulates crops that are genetically modified to make their own pesticide, by distributing its Bollgard insect-resistant cotton seed in several Texas panhandle counties despite EPA-imposed planting restrictions there.